


this still life (i'm waiting for you)

by stranded_star



Category: Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: Character Study, F/F, On the Run, actual angel molly hernandez, karolina is a happy lesbian
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-12
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2019-03-30 02:56:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13941096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stranded_star/pseuds/stranded_star
Summary: they break down east of joshua tree. karolina doesn't mind.





	this still life (i'm waiting for you)

**Author's Note:**

> i have about a million and one thoughts about their characters and the show and these precious angels deserve so much development and screen-time, my next fic idea is karolina and nico actually talking about the kissing and Alex and their powers and sexualities, which honestly is what we deserve. looking at u season 2. anyways karolina dean is a rainbow lesbian who is in gay love with her goth bisexual gf that is all.

They're flying down the 10 when it happens.

Marsha (the name Molly lovingly gave to the van they stole from Gibborim) sputters and wheezes, and Karolina smells gasoline and rust before Alex shouts at her to pull over and get off the main road, jesus christ, and she bites down her annoyance and a snarky comment about Jesus before she rips off toward something called Chiriaco Summit and they make it into a gas station parking lot before Marsha gives one last shuddering cry. Alex and Chase are already bickering as they all scramble out of the car, and Karolina tugs absently at her braid, tilting her face up to the hazy blue sky, the warm California sun warming her bare shoulders.

She's loosely aware that this is concerning, and that staying in any one place for long is bound to be trouble, but she knows that once Alex and Chase stop their frustrated displays of masculinity long enough to put their heads together, they'll fix Marsha up enough to get them to the border of Arizona. Even though they had argued extensively about the merits of crossing state borders and risking the FBI getting involved, Gert had out-logic-ed even Alex by convincing him that burying themselves into the vastness of the American West could buy them enough time to start fabricating new identities and develop some type of strategy. Karolina felt strangely giddy after that conversation, imagining what it would be like to visit Phoenix, to study the vast lines of the desert, to revel in the most freedom she's had in her entire life.

The thing is. Even this is beautiful, the fear and the running and the hiding, because Karolina doesn't have to pretend. Instead, she can braid Molly's hair every night while Chase drives and Gert bickers with him about feminist approaches to science fiction, and tilt her head up to the breeze while Nico's riot grrl music thumps through the van, and best of all, she can fall asleep in a pile of blankets and warm limbs as Nico's soft body pulls her close, hands loosely linked.

 _Nico_. Shivers flood her body as her eyes find the other girl, blazing and angry and defiant as her figure stands out sharply against the browns and reds and golds of the California desert. Her eyebrows are knit sharply, arms crossed, and her lips worried and marked, the faux lip piercing now gone. Karolina feels hypnotized by her constantly, her body humming with the knowledge of the way Nico feels: when their bodies were pressed up together in that desperate, lovely five minutes they got alone together against the graffitied wall behind the last gas station, where Karolina put her hands on Nico's sharp hipbones like a lifeline, where Nico bit her bottom lip gently, breaths airy and high and feminine, where Karolina felt that strange and shaky want deep in the pit of her belly; when Nico's cold fingers wrapped around the delicate hollow of Karolina's wrist, pulling her from a nightmare where she was less than human, tugging on her Gib bracelet enough to remind her she was real; when their shoulders press up together in the backseat and Karolina remembers, again, that she gets to touch Nico, gets to know the soft bow of her lips, gets to exist in her orbit, when even weeks ago loving a girl felt next to impossible.

Karolina feels as if she is perpetually existing in awe of Nico's unwavering light, and it is glorious.

She itches to be closer, and as if Nico's inner witch could sense her, the other girl turns and her frown twitches into a smile at the sight of Karolina's love-soft face. She walks closer, and Karolina's hand automatically twitches out to touch her wrist. Her skin tingles when they touch, and Nico looks at up at her, her dark eyes unfathomable yet warm, glinting with flinty stars. "Hey," she breathes, and Nico smiles, large and loose and free. Her chest glows.

Nico's low rough voice scowls, "These bozos. They need to hurry the fuck up, I know those nerds understand technology enough to figure out a car breaking down."

"I dunno," Karolina stares off at the cresting hills of Joshua Tree, the clean smell of yucca and sage filling her ribs with a strange nostalgia. "I don't think I mind it so much. It's so pretty here."

"Just like you," Nico teases, even though her voice has an undercurrent of something rougher and exciting. Karolina turns her sea-storm blue eyes onto her, lashes lowered; she is still figuring out how this thing inside her works, how the prom queen beauty everyone told her she was lucky to have can turn into something real and thrilling and completely wrapped up in what Nico wants. She loves that when Nico says "pretty," she _sees_ her: the ridges on her spine, the sweet skin behind her ear, her mess of gold curls in the morning, the loose line of her lips when she's daydreaming and unaware. She sees _Karolina_ , someone so much more than Chase Stein's dream church girl.

And in return, she gets to see Nico: when her hair is down and her makeup is off, still smudged dark around her eyes, her hard mouth softening; the shiver-inducing twist of her waist when her shirt rode up, Karolina's fingers light on the jut of her hips; her anger, full and complete and blazing, when the radio comes on and they talk about their parents and Molly and kidnapping; and her grief, when she thinks no one is looking and Amy comes flooding back, when Nico slumps, distant and moody as she processes her loss. Karolina wants it all, the mess and the realness of it, and the endless futures that Nico holds. Even as they face the impending doom of Jonah and their parents, Karolina has never felt as alive.

Molly's voice breaks their spell. "Hey guys, let's stock up on candy!" Her exuberance is quickly followed by Gert's grumbling interim-parenting and Chase's fond indulgence, and Nico slips her hand into hers.

"Let's go?"

Karolina nods, letting her pull her towards the shop, where they'll get bags of twinkies and cheetos and granola bars that Alex and Gert insist on, and whatever other odds and ends seem appropriate for six teenagers on the run in the middle of nowhere. As they pile back into the car, tenuously fixed by Alex and Chase, Old Lace hums sleepily in greeting and Alex takes the driver's seat as they tear out of the lot, dust flying up behind. And as Marsha grumbles and sputters back into high gear, Karolina squeezes Nico's hand.

The dusky rose sky opens up, light spilling out of the clouds, and Karolina feels free.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry to anyone from California and also to cars.


End file.
